Should Your Boss Encourage You to Take Drugs?

And if so, is the workplace still drug free??? And if an employee would prefer not to follow advice on using a drug??

From the 6 June 2012 article at The Health Care Blog

A top executive I know recently decided to takeInderal before making high-pressure/high-anxiety presentations. The impact was immediate. She felt more relaxed, confident and effective. Her people agreed.

Would she encourage a comparably anxious subordinate to take the drug? No. But if that employee’s anxiety really undermined his or her effectiveness, she’d share her story and make them aware of the Inderal option. She certainly wouldn’t disapprove of an employee seeking prescription help to become more productive.

No one in America thinks twice anymore if a colleague takes Prozac. (Roughly 10% of workers in Europe and the U.K. use antidepressants, as well). Caffeine has clearly become the (legal) stimulant of business choice and Starbucks its most profitable global pusher (two shots of espresso, please).

Increasingly, prescription ADHD drugs like Adderall, dedicated to improving attention deficits, are finding their way into gray market use by students looking for a cognitive edge. When one looks at existing and in-the-pipeline drugs for Alzheimer’s and other neurophysiological therapies for aging OECD populations with retirements delayed, the odds are that far more employees are going to be taking more drugs to get more work done better….

Related articles

• Should Your Boss Encourage You to Take Drugs? (thehealthcareblog.com)
• Should Your Boss Encourage You to Take Drugs? (blogs.hbr.org)
• FDA Warns of Counterfeit Adderall Sales (whnt.com)
• FDA Warns of Fake Version of ADHD Drug Adderall (news.health.com)
• FDA Warns Over Fake Adderall Drugs (myfoxphilly.com)

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